Domain B: The act of Teaching
B1. Teaching Assistants will demonstrate competency in engaging all learners in English language communication and cultural understanding using language acquisition teaching strategies, including applications of multi-media technologies.
B2. Teaching Assistants will manage typical classroom procedures.
B3. Teaching Assistants will communicate effectively using verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques.
Domain B1: Teaching Assistants will demonstrate competency in engaging all learners in English language communication and cultural understanding using language acquisition teaching strategies, including applications of multi-media technologies.
Using alternative media in the classroom is something I incorporate in my courses each semester. Music plays one of the largest role of alternative media I use. Using music as a text to analyze presented to my students the possibility where they could use something they listen to on a daily basis as something they disliked doing, reading a text. When I showed them how music lyrics could be seen as another story, a text, they were surprised. They did not imagine we could use music as a text. What I believed shocked them most, however, was how the song I decided to use was in their L1, Spanish.
While teaching Ingl 3202, English Reading and Composition II, to Basic sequence students, the course focused on the topic of gender expression and sexual orientation. With this being such a taboo topic for students, I started off the semester with presenting them a salsa song which they had heard countless times before. The song is titled “El Gran Varon” by Willie Colón. In English, the title translates to “The Great Boy/Son”. The song is about a man named Andrés and his son, named Simon. It explains how Simon was not like regular boys, much to his father’s disapproval. Simon was transgender, or a cross dresser, this is never clarified in the song. Simon was sick with what many people believed to be AIDS, but it is never specified in the song. The song was released in 1989, when the AIDS boom was at full force in the United States.
For my class, I asked my students to carefully analyze the song with me. Many students had listen to song before, but had no idea the song was about what it was about. They were surprised to actually take the time to read the lyrics and see the sad reality for Simon. When we began to think about it more in depth, I asked my students to take into consideration how we look at this subject of gender and sexuality in Puerto Rico. As homework for our first class (yes, this was our first official day of class), students had to use the weekend to ask their parents and grandparents what they know about the songs and the impacted it had during their time. Results varied from students who had no idea this was an issue which affected Puerto Rico to students whose parents and grandparents remembered clearly the moment the song came out and the impact it had in society.
Domain B2: Teaching Assistants will manage typical classroom procedures
In the classroom, the first thing I do is take attendance. I either take attendance in my own computer using Gradekeeper, or I call out their names from memory and write a note in my planner on who was absent on that specific day. I tend to work really hard to learn my students name in the first week or two of class, so knowing who is there and who is not eventually becomes easier. I always work to get to the class with at least 5 minutes to spare and set up, or simply to just talk to them before class. Something my course coordinator pointed out as a positive in my classroom management was how I:
“managed time in the classroom exceedingly well, providing specific timeframes for the various activities in order to ensure that she met her aims for the day and that students were on-task.”
However, something I could work with a little more in my classroom management skills is mapping out my class at the beginning. My course coordinator recommended how I should:
“routinely and explicitly map out the current days aims for students, making connections to past classes by clarifying how prior lessons have led up to the present, and what will soon follow. She may alternatively request that students themselves make the connections between the current day’s objectives and past lessons.”
Domain B3: Teaching Assistants will communicate effectively using verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques
Students enjoy working with activities in which they have to be creative. At times, using words seem to be an issue for them. I have noticed how, at times (especially at the beginning of the semester), students are hesitant to speak or write when they feel they are low proficiency students. While I taught my Ingl 3202 course, the course focused on literary analyses of texts. I decided I wanted to do things a little different when we got to discussing characterization. Instead of focusing on words to describe one of the characters of the short story “The Two Miracles of the Gringos Virgin” by James Cañon. Students were divided into groups of 4-5 and asked to make a poster representing the characters of the story: the Abuelita, Carmencita/Francisco, Carmencita mother, and Francisco father. There was only one rule with the project, other than the name of the characters, they could NOT USE ANY WORDS! Students could draw, use magazine clippings, use images from the internet, anything as long as it was not words. The posters, once done, were posted on my office wall for them to see during the Speaking Logs.
A variation of this project was adapted for my We Teach 2 conference for my UTD course. For this presentation, me and a peer adapter the project using Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. My peers from UTD had to create a small poster representing the characters of either the Cat or the fish without using words. A small copy of the book was given out to the tables, magazines, scissors, crayons, markers, pencils, and glue were given out for them to create make their posters. After making the posters, they presented it to the rest of the UTD peers.
